Blue House scrambling to contain Pres. Park’s comments about changing THAAD site

Posted on : 2016-08-06 13:52 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
President’s remarks apparently came with no preliminary discussions and conflict with announced position
The Blue House in Seoul
The Blue House in Seoul

The Blue House moved quickly on Aug. 5 to counter the growing controversy over President Park Geun-hye’s remarks the day before on investigating and examining an alternate site for deploying the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.

In response to claims that the Blue House was admitting its own hastiness in the THAAD decision - and that the deployment could end up deferred - a spokesperson rushed to explain that it would “not be easy in practical terms” to change the site.

But the criticisms in the wake of Park’s remarks refuse to die down, with many saying the Ministry of National Defense hurt its own policy consistency by reversing on its previous position that no other sites would be considered, while the administration sacrificed faith in its policies with its spur-of-the-moment suggestion of an alternate site examination it has no intention of carrying out.

“She was saying that while it would not be easy to change the selected site, she will have a careful examination of other regions [in Seongju County] as requested and let [the public] know in detail,” Blue House spokesperson Jeong Yeon-guk said on Aug. 5 by way of explaining Park’s comments.

The day before, Park had said during a Blue House meeting with Saenuri Party lawmakers from the Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province areas that “to ease worries among Seongju residents, if there is another area the county [Seongju] recommends, I will have a careful examination and communicate the findings precisely and in detail.”

Jeong repeatedly stressed that Park had merely been complying with a “request at the meeting for examination of another region within Seongju County.”

According to this explanation, the THAAD system deployment at its originally planned site at Seongsan artillery base in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province, is inevitable, but the administration could examine the possibility of another region recommended by residents.

“The gist of her reply was that because the outcry from Seongju residents was so strong, she would hear what their opinions are,” explained a Blue House official.

“This should be seen not as an examination for the purposes of relocation to another region, but to let people know why other regions won’t work,” the official added.

The claims of “inevitability” appear to be an attempt to clamp down on predictions from some quarters that a change in the deployment site could result in the original plan for deployment by late 2017 falling through - and possibly the deployment itself being scrapped. But the explanation could also lend credence to claims that Park’s remarks the day before had merely been lip service.

The off-the-cuff nature of the remarks has also come under scrutiny. According to sources, the Blue House had not discussed the matter with the Ministry of National Defense or other foreign affairs and security agencies before Park mentioned the possibility of examining an alternate site.

“I could just be unaware, but my understanding is that there were no preliminary working-level discussions between relevant agencies before the President’s remarks,” said one administration official.

A Ministry of National Defense official declined to comment, saying only that they had been “unable to confirm” with the Minister. The ministry has already reversed itself several times: while it maintained on July 25 that an alternate site was out of the question, it then stated after Park’s remarks on Aug. 4 that it “could consider” another site. A few hours later, it declared there had been “no change in our position that the Seongju artillery unit is the optimal location for the THAAD system deployment.”

The opposition has been critical of the administration’s “play it by ear” approach. In a statement, Minjoo Party floor spokesperson Ki Dong-min said, “It only divides residents more when they say in one region that ‘we’ll think about another place if you don’t like this one’ without any fundamental examination of the THAAD deployment policy itself.”

“This kind of shallow behavior after all the previous talk about ‘staking the Korean Peninsula’s fate’ on the THAAD deployment undermines the very foundations of state policy,” Ki added.

Park Jie-won, who heads the People’s Party emergency countermeasures committee, called Park’s remarks “the administration admitting itself that the THAAD deployment decision was made too hastily.”

“It’s an incompetent idea where they’re robbing Peter to pay Paul,” Park said.

By Choi Hye-jung and Lee Je-hun, staff reporters

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

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